Friday, April 24, 2009

Keith Olbermann's Dare to Sean Hannity, From DailyKos

It's easily twenty years - thirty, more like - since I saw the late Dr. Albert Sabin burst into tears on television and beg for forgiveness. When I tell his story to friends of mine in medicine, they go silent, and some have experienced profound changes of perspective.

Let's help Sean Hannity turn into Dr. Albert Sabin, if only for a moment.

Dr. Sabin was leading the research on the "live" version of polio vaccine, and stood bitterly and condescendingly against Dr. Jonas Salk's less-tested, more-risky "killed" version. When the manufacture of some of Salk's vaccine was butchered by a pharmaceutical company, Sabin helped get its use stopped, for months. Unknown numbers of kids became victims of polio, in part because Sabin insisted the production mistakes meant the Salk vaccine itself wasn't safe.

Years later, Sabin awoke with body-wide, sometimes paralyzing, intense pain. There was no diagnosis and no relief. Only years later, as Sabin recounted through tears, did the searing pain abate. He had totally misunderstood his job, he said. He had wasted his gifts. He had forgotten that the first task of the doctor is relief of pain. Cure, restoration, research - each was vital. But only when his own pain became the only thing in his life, did he understand what it meant to be a patient, and how wrong he had been during the most dramatic medical events of his life.

I'm not kidding myself here. Hannity doesn't have the material to work with, to manage a full-scale epiphany. To use an unkind phrase we use to bat back and forth at ESPN: No pain, no gain; no brain, no pain.

But his offer the other night to Chuck Grodin to 'prove' that waterboardng isn't torture by allowing it to be done to him, is too important to pass up, because of the image it will certainly produce. No matter what he says afterwards or how he tries to laugh it off, Hannity's certitude will be smashed by Hannity's natural, human panic.

He doesn't have to become Dr. Sabin for more than ten seconds. And many, maybe most, of his viewers, will join him in the collective post-waterboarding lie that he never feared for his life. Regardless, the impact will be sufficient. If it changes the minds of one percent of his supporters, it will have been worth it. And think about the vast numbers of people who have no idea who he is, or who I am, or what this site is, who will know only that a boastful man literally had reality forced upon him.

Thus last night I made my offer to Hannity. He told Chuck he'd do it for families of the troops, and he'd let Chuck do it (Grodin demurred). Those were his only conditions. I'll add a few:

Hannity may be waterboarded live on his show. All I require is that a trustworthy outside observer be present to make sure the waterboarding is a legitimate recreation of what we did to detainees. Chuck Grodin is perfectly acceptable, or Hannity may nominate an alternate, but I must approve the identity of the observer.Hannity may instead be waterboarded on tape if he prefers. In that event, I require that at least one non-Fox camera crew be permitted access to record all events, along with a trustworthy outside observer. Again, Grodin will be fine.Hannity must identify the charity or charities, organization or organizations, to which he wants the donation made, so I can verify in advance that the money will indeed get to the families of American troops. The organization cannot be sponsored by, nor affiliated with, Hannity or his employers.I will donate $1,000 (one thousand dollars) for every second of water-boarding Hannity endures. We will start the clock the moment the first water is poured on him. The clock will stop when Hannity confesses or begins to shout or scream on a prolonged basis, or the medical supervisor determines he is danger of organ failure.If Hannity admits afterwards he was afraid for his life and that waterboarding is indeed torture, I will double my total contribution.And I will repeat this offer each night on Countdown until he agrees or declines.

UPDATE, 12:54 PM EDT: I think we're going to have to have a simulated interrogator there. And yes, he's going to have to admit to something instead of just saying "stop."

A simulated interrogator will have to be present and vocal, insisting Hannity confesses.Unlike those we waterboarded, Hannity need only admit to something factual to get the waterboarding to stop. He may choose among: "Obama is not a socialist," "Waterboarding is torture," or something else mutually agreeable between us.

4 comments:

Well, Foxwood.. since you think "Little torture is good for the soul" We will let you be the next one to volunteer for the water board after your hero Hannity. I am sure we can take up a collection and find enough people to donate money to support the wounded warriors and their families of the war your heroes bush and cheney lied us into and tortured our way through. I don't have much money but I would give some for every second you can be water boarded, just like KO is for Hannity. How bout it.. you up for it.. there big guy??

Well well...I think this could get much more interesting...at this point I would pay to Watch Bush, Cheney , Rummy their Minions, and yes, that includes the FOX Propaganda Team to be Questioned at International Trials About WHAT they ordered and did....it should be very Public - like Nuremberg- except aired LIVE and tickets Sold to the public....

2000 photos are due to made over the next weeks...There is no turning away from the Truth...and Only Some of Us with Values and Morals will have the Courage to face and watch the War Crimes Investigations and Trials....

This is all fine and well but neither one has been captured trying to kill our people or our allies, the enemy combatants were.....

so they saw off our people's heads when captured, but waterboarding is to violent for them...... to get information to try to stop another attact on our soil....

Waterboarding is not torture. Has never been. Torture itself is wrong..... by torture I mean the truthful kind (often done to our troops in the past)... things such as pulling our fingernails, teeth, beating, etc.., not only is it totally inhumane, but it seldon yields accurate info.... just think, if someone was pulling your fingernails out you would think up something to get out of it, wouldt you?

So by your logic then, Mr Olbermann can waterboard Mr Hannity, but would Mr Hannity afterward be able to saw off Mr. Olbermann's head with a hacksaw? I don't agree with it, but if thats how you want to draw teams I dont see anyway around it without being hypocrtical...

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I am an old truck driver who is lost on the information highway. My map is torn and the road is under construction. The GOP says no infrastructure and the Dems can't get their stuff together. Now what??